PLANO — After months of striving to find the right balance, Plano officials say they now have a revamped security plan that does not involve armed guards on school grounds.

Instead, each elementary and early childhood campus will be issued a dozen panic buttons that will be assigned to staff members. Currently, each Plano school district site has such a button in the main office.

If a button is activated, an alarm will be sent directly to police dispatchers and text messages will go out to selected staff.

Meanwhile, the district will hire off-duty police officers to patrol zoned areas in new Plano ISD security vehicles. The areas will include elementary and middle school campuses.

Superintendent Richard Matkin said the new security plan makes the best use of resources and is more cost-efficient than previous plans.

“In talking to police, they say it’s all about cutting that response time down,” Matkin said. “This will significantly cut down on that time, especially when you have that overlapping coverage from the roving patrols along with the city’s regular patrols.”

In the wake of the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December in Connecticut, Matkin initially announced he was going to hire armed private security guards for every campus that did not currently have police officers assigned, which includes the high schools and senior high schools.

But after he received some pushback from the community and explored liability issues, Matkin dropped that idea.

The school board then approved a $1.3 million increase in security costs, mostly to add police officers to middle schools. But that did little to address elementary school needs, and officials had hoped to share costs with cities.

Officials said the new plan addresses needs at all campuses and significantly cuts down on cost without burdening cities. The expenses are expected to be about $800,000 in the first year. Half are capital costs for things such as the patrol vehicles. Officials estimate ongoing costs will be about $400,000 annually.

“This gives us the maximum coverage with the minimal amount of costs,” school board president Nancy Humphrey said.

In the months after the deadly school shooting in Connecticut, districts across the nation have worked to revamp security.

Victoria Calder, director of the Texas School Safety Center, said schools and cities across the state have maintained that focus on security.

“There has been an increase in funding security for many districts,” Calder said. “But one of the important measures to keep in mind requires almost no funds — just more enhanced planning, training and drilling so everyone knows what to do to save lives when seconds count.”

In Dallas, more than 150 campuses will get improved security measures, including cameras, buzzers and electronic card readers. Officials in the Garland school district decided to arm its six security officers that patrol district facilities in addition to existing school resource police officers.

Other efforts in Plano have included using bond money to modify entrances to about 50 campuses to create better physical barriers. The district also plans to install some interior doors to section off a school in the event of an emergency.

Parent Erica Johnson — who has four children in elementary through high school grades — said she’s comforted by Plano’s efforts, particularly its use of the mobile panic buttons.

“Things like that are smart and safe, as opposed to something like having armed teachers in schools,” Johnson said. “As a parent, you think about school safety every day, but you don’t want that to be the only thing you worry about. This helps.”